And, I’m not a bad cook. In the past, the smell of my pasta sauce could lure a great number of drooling hungrymen . I make the best meatballs too (just ask my brother Joey), and my desserts are good enough to make my husband wash the dishes. But those days are gone.
This year, I’ve traded steaming dinners and help in the kitchen for a cracked food processor and a juicer that sprays green goo all over my cabinets. I don’t cook. But I spend more time preparing meals, and cleaning up the inevitable backlash from appliances that are borrowed, broken and over worked.
But I do all this for them. So they can feel the energy and beauty that raw food inspires. I do this to improve their health and attitudes. My husband is oh so much kinder when he’s had his morning green smoothie. And, he thinks I make it for him to help him lose weight (nope! sorry babe). But, because the nutrition in raw green food is so bio-available, he could get more health from less calories and lose weight naturally.
It always made sense to me that unprocessed raw organic fruits and veggies were healthier, but I only included them in my plate because I loved the way they tasted. In fact, I was raised to loooove food – so I could get just as excited for French fries as I could for spinach salad.
I grew up in a typical Italian-American household where you spent breakfast planning dinner, and everyone gathered round the table at 10pm to eat prosciutto and fontenella cheese because relatives showed up unexpectedly. Or beacuse we were happy. Or sad. Or in the midst of making a tough decision.
We ate because that’s what we “do.” The food brought us together. And, any time I think of my Nana I can smell her Christmas Eve fried cakes. I tell ya, it was hard to remove myself from the feeling of NEED for these comfort foods.
Especially Bread!! Like the crispy loaves they sell at Superior Bakery by Western Avenue in Chicago.
So, why would a chick like me, who has always been “skinny” (an Italian sin, by the way) remove such LOVE from her life?
Well, simply put – because I feel so much better now!
The first time I moved from my parents’ home, I began eating more salads and fruit out of convenience, but I also enjoyed the extra energy. My mom taught me that Chef Boyardee was the enemy, so I never got into the gross canned and boxed foods.
Body Ecology helped me realize that this “raw” I’d been eating through college and early marriage was still too high in sugar. Before I understood the importance of a low sugar/alkaline diet for healing – I was eating a cantaloupe, 6 bananas, 4 peaches, a few pounds of berries and whatever other fruits I wanted each day. And, since I could never give up the bread and pasta I kept feeding the candida yeast. And, my energy was depleating.
Then, life took a turn for the healthier more recently because of Dougie. I mean, as a stay at home mom who spends 14 hours each day chasing her son – energy and inner calm is a must.
When my candida was really bad, I couldn’t digest un-blended veggies. When I say that I couldn’t digest them, I mean my abdomen would swell pregnancy style after eating a meal. I mean there was a point where my mother thought I was trying to hide a pregnancy. She could not believe food, especially “healthy food” like carrots, celery, spinach and bananas could have such a quick negative effect on me.
But as time has passed the more raw I eat – the better I feel. And, the better I feel – the more foods I can handle. Including an occasional slice of bread.
There are tons of stories regarding the benefits of this diet. But I didn’t know any of them. I didn’t even know that there is a HUGE internet community that offers support and recipes to make raw living easier.
All I was knowing was that I was feelin Goooooood. And then I learned about spirulina, and maca and milk thistle and Vitamineral Green and hemp and all these lovely add ons that still my mind, improve my focus and help me function on 4-5 hours of sleep.
I get more accomplished now. And my skin looks great (oh yeah, I did this to look better too. There was a time when I would’ve drank windex if it would’ve relieved my acne).
When I eat cooked I often feel bloated, tired and short tempered.
After about a year of healing Dougie’s digestive tract with soft foods,blended cooked and raw soups, and probiotic foods, he began to accept more raw food. He will eat just about anything I make, and the raw-er he goes –the quicker he develops. Days without raw green shakes or too much cooked foods (even veggies) make Dougie less vibrant and more sleepy and crabby. I feel that his ability to heal so quickly is a result of the High Raw diet. We don’t just do Body Ecology. We Do it Raw.
When Dougie was on a High Cooked diet, he was hungrier all the time and shoveled his food into his mouth — never seeming satisfied. Still today, if we go out for dinner and give him cooked veggies, he will devour them quickly and always crave more. His body is screaming for vitamins and minerals and doesn’t get enough from cooked food.
Over-eating was really easy with cooked food because he was never getting enough nutrition to fulfill his deficiencies. Overeating often lead to a bloated tummy, tantrums and loss of focus. Even our skeptical family has noted that Dougie eats much slower and seems so much more satisfied now.
Who would’ve thought that fewer calories and a meat-less dairy-free diet could help a boy gain weight and strengthen his attention span?
Well, I suppose God did, when she invented the coconut!!
So, now I don’t have much reason to cook. My husband does continue to eat of both worlds. But, at home he appreciates my un-cooking more than any gourmet raw food spot we’ve visited. And that says something. 
This was a guy who had never tried guacamole until he met me. A man who used to eat Manwich Sandwich over spaghetti (and, honestly still would).
Doug thanks me for his Spirulina Juice: (spirulina,orange, celery, spinach, coconut kefir, cilantro, coconut milk, hemp, vitamineral green, and lime). He says they make him feel good.
And, you already know I like when he is happy.
And, when women ask me how I got him to try these things…… The guy who never understood the Italian NEED to share every delicious thing on our plates totally warmed up to raw when I stopped begging him to. He had to do it on his own time.
Out of love and the habit of tradition I may make a pot of sauce occasionally, I’m no raw snob!
Here’s a family fave that even the Italians totally dig… They don’t even understand they are eating something revolutionary!
photo credits:
